86 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY r 



representation for which Mr. Weelies afterwards 'becaine the successful candidate. The aaroe 

 of the Indian who was on his way to be tried was Ogetonicut. His brother, Whistling Duck, 

 had been kUled by a white man, and he tooli his revenge on John Sharp, another white man. 

 The deed was done at Ball Point on Lake Scugog, where John Sharp was in charge of a trading- 

 post for furs belonging to the Messrs. Farewell. The Governor had promised, so it was alleged, 

 that the slayer of Whistling Duck should be punished. But a twelvemonth had elapsed and 

 nothing had been done. The whole tribe, the Muskrat branch of the Chippewas, with their 

 Chief Wabbekisheco at thei head, came up in canoes to York on this occasion, starting from 

 the mouth of Annis's creek near Port Oshawa, and encamping at Gibraltar Point on the 

 peninsula in front of York. A guard of soldiers went over to assist in the arrest of Ogetonicut, 

 who, it appears, had arrived with the rest. The Chief, Wabbekisheco, took the culprit by the 

 shoulder and delivered him up. He was lodged in the jaU at York. During the summer it 

 was proved by means of a survey that the spot where Sharp had been killed was within the 

 District of Newcastle. It was held necessary, therefore, that the trial should take place in that 

 District. Sellick's, at the Carrying Place, was to have been the scene of the investigation, and 

 thither the Speedy was bound when she foundered. Mr. Justice Cochrane was a most estimable 

 character personally, and a man of distinguished abUity. He was only in his 28th year, and 

 had been Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island before his arrival in Upper Canada. He was 

 a native of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, but had studied law in Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the 

 Bar in England. 



In the old Court House, near which we are now passing, were assigned to convicted culprits, 

 with unflinching severity and in no inconsiderable number of instances, all the penalties 

 enjoined in the criminal code of the day — the lash, the pUlory, the stocks, the gallows. We 

 have conversed with an old inhabitant of Toronto, who had not only here heard the penalty of 

 branding ordered by the Judge, but had actually seen it in open court inflicted, the iron being 

 heated in the great wood-stove that warmed the room, and the culprit made to stretch out his 

 hand and have burnt thereon the initial letter of the offence committed. 



Here cases came up repeatedly, arising out of the system of slavery which at the beginning 

 was received in Canada, apparently as an inevitable part and parcel of the social arrangements 

 of a colony on this continent. On the first of March, 1811, we have it on the record, " William 

 Jarvis, of the town of York, Esq., (this is the Secretary again,) informed the Court that a 

 negro boy and girl, his slaves, had the evening before been committed to prison for having 

 stolen gold and silver out of his desk in his dwelling house, and escaped from their said master ; 

 and prayed that the Court would order that the said prisoners, with one Coaehly, a free negro, 

 also committed to prison on susiwoion of having advised and aided the said boy and girl in 

 eloping with their master's property." Thereupon it was "Ordered, — That the said negro boy 

 named Henry, commonly called Prince, be re-committed to prison, and there safely kept till 

 delivered according to law, and that the girl do return to her said master ; and Coaehly be 

 discharged." 



At the date just mentioned Slavery was being gradually extinguished by an Act of the 

 Provincial Legislature of Upper Canada, passed at Newark in 1793, which forbad the further 

 introduction of slaves, and ordered that all slave children after the 9th of July in that year 

 should be free on attaining the age of twenty-five. 



Most gentlemen, from the Administrator of the Government downwards, possessed some 

 Slaves. Peter Russell, in 1806, was anxious to dispose of two of his, and thus advertised in the 

 Gazette and Oracle, mentioning his prices : " To be sold : a Black Woman named Peggy, aged 

 forty years, and a Black Boy, her son, named Jupiter, aged about fifteen years, both of them 

 the property of the subscriber. The woman is a tolerable cook and washerwoman, and perfect- 

 ly understands making soap and candles. The boy is tall and strong for his age, and has been 

 employed in the country business, but brought up principally as a house servant. They are 

 each of them servants for life. The price of the woman is one hundred and fifty dollars. For 

 the boy two hundred dollars, payable in three years, with interest from the day of sale, and to 

 be secured by bond, &c. But one-fourth less will be taken for ready money. York, Feb. 19th, 

 1806. Petbb Russell." 



According to our ideas at the present moment, such an advertisement as this is shocking 

 enough. But we must judge the words and deeds of men by the spirit of the age in which they 

 lived and moved. 



